That's actually wine and they still make it in like eastern europe countries. It's pretty good. I mean it's not good in a way like those über expensive old french wines, but it's cheap, tastes pretty good and you get pretty wasted because of the alcohol %.

The Romans would set pigs or boars on fire and send them running towards the enemy. Most of the time the enemy would think it was Gods/Demons or holy **** like that and it would send them running. They used it against Carthage in the Punic Wars to also scare the elephants they rode. Romans were cool like that.